


We Aren't Who We Say We Are

by night_phaeism



Category: Original Work
Genre: Asexual Character, Astrology, Bisexual Character, Brotherly Love, Constellations, Death, F/F, F/M, Healthy Relationships, Mental Health Issues, Night Terrors, Nonbinary Character, Past Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Past Lives, Platonic Relationships, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, References to Ancient Greek Religion & Lore, Reincarnation, Science Fiction, Thriller, Trans Female Character, Trauma, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-05-01
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:28:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23127052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/night_phaeism/pseuds/night_phaeism
Summary: Constellations have always been watching over humanity, called many things over the millennia. They take the form of humans and help to guide humanity to the best possible outcome. Corvus Addington and Draco Adachi are assigned in the general Oregon area and hope to live under the radar lives. All that is squandered as Constellations begin to go missing and show up mutilated and left in ditches around the country and possibly the world. They try their best to glide through undetected but as the two get to know each other, their connection is undeniable despite their secretive natures. The two meet again, unknowingly, when Cory becomes Draco's brother's nanny for a month and Atlas Adachi seems to know more than he lets on about the Constellation business.
Kudos: 1





	1. Prologue

_I need you to know I didn’t do what they say I did. I mean technically I did, but not all of it. I didn’t mean it. I didn’t hurt anyone intentionally. I didn’t do that to any of them. I was trying to help him and I was trying to protect you. I tried to protect you guys as best as I could. Did a pretty piss poor job of that, huh? Maybe that wasn’t my place. Clearly, he could take care of himself and honestly, he did a better job with you. I take full responsibility for my actions. I know what I did was wrong. I’m sorry for all the pain I caused. I’m trying to make up for that. Maybe you’ve seen it on the news? I kinda hope you haven’t. I don’t look so good, fucked up my hair and got tiny. Never thought I’d get small, but hey, completed my new years resolution of getting fit. Guess that’s a bonus. I should’ve listened to you, listened to him. I should have seen it coming. I should have realized. I really hope we didn’t fuck everything up. You deserve a good, happy fulfilling life. I was the happiest I’ve ever been with you, I know I got kinda iffy and shitty near the end. I’m really sorry. Here I am making this about me. I was never about me or us. It was always about you. I love you so much. It hurts to know I’ll never see you again. It’s for the best. I can’t stop you from having a life and moving on by staying in your life. He loves you. He loves you so much. Please remember that. I know things weren’t always wonderful between you two, but he cared so very much. He protected us in more ways than you know. I hope you remember him for all the good things he’s done. I hope you can forgive me, for everything. For not protecting him, for ignoring you, for snapping. God, I hope you can forgive me for snapping. I can’t forgive myself. For what it's worth, I enjoyed every moment we spent together, all of us. I love you. You’re smart, far smarter than me, that’s for sure. I know you’re going to do great, wonderful things. I hope this isn’t too hard on you. If you ever get lonely, look up at the stars. Find us, we’ll always be listening. We’ll always be with you, cheering you on. We love you._


	2. Chapter One: The Papers

“There have always been constellations watching over humanity, much like how God supposedly watches over everything you do. We were called guardian angels, told we had gifts from the gods, that we were miracles and miracle makers. As far as I can tell none of that is true. Although, I could be wrong. I don’t know, I haven’t been here long, I haven’t been up there long. I don’t know how long we’ve been here. I don’t know if there was a time we guarded other planets or perhaps even other galaxies. I don’t know how we first began protecting you. What I do know is that is our purpose, to protect the human race from anything that hopes to harm it whether that is from itself or outside forces. Apparently, this mission was so instrumental that several constellations were sent to guide those who are needed for the best possible outcome. No one knows what they are supposed to do for this outcome to happen so we are all just making it up as we go. Sometimes this works out spectacularly and sometimes not so much. I suppose only time will tell.

“From my experience, which is of course limited, I can’t think of a time when there was more than one constellation in a single area. As of right now, there are a few in the area I occupy. I know that is vague but for the safety of those I care about I can’t say anymore. I can tell you, while I am over a dozen centuries old, I am currently, in my human form, seventeen. A legal adult in only a few months. It is a fascinating age to observe how humanity acts. There are many people who judge me and others based upon our age or gender or race or sexuality. Humanity is so split that it is hard to understand what the universe gains from us protecting you and why it is seen as important. I enjoy it nonetheless, the human body and mind and soul is increasingly intriguing.”

Corvus looked up from her papers, hoping her hands weren’t shaking, but of course they were. She searched her classmates' faces looking for a sign of any emotion, good or bad. As she looked around the classroom, she locked eyes with the one person she didn’t want to acknowledge. He glared for a second then looked down at his desk pursing his lips.

“That was a unique take on the topic but for a piece of fiction it is written very formally. Also try not to bring religion or politics into your pieces. This applies to all of you.” Ms. Lopez said as Cory dragged her attention from him to her teacher.

“Yeah, I thought that was how this character would write it. They seem to be formal.” She folded the edges of her paper a couple times, back and forth.

“Okay, interesting. Class, thoughts? Opinions?” The teacher opened the discussion to the entire class while Cory tried to stabilize her hands.

“I think it’s stupid and she’s stupid.” The boy sitting in the back of the class spoke up for the first time probably all year. He looked at Corvus with a look of disinterest while clicking his pen over and over on his desk.

“Says the dick who's been trying to get her to date you again.” Kai, who was sitting attentively in the second row, said. “Great diction by way, asshole.”

“Kai, language and Harley, constructive criticism only.”

“Not that he has a chance anyways, not with that ass.” They mumbled, quietly but not so quiet that Harley couldn’t hear them. Unfortunately, Ms. Lopez was closer to them then Harley was.

“Kai.” Ms. Lopez gave a disapproving look in their direction.

“Shut up, queer.”

Kai looked like they were about to turn around and bite his head off or throw something but Ms. Lopez beat them to it.

“Harley, that is not okay. Never say that ever again.” Ms. Lopez looked like she was fuming. Cory wouldn’t have been surprised if her face had turned bright red and she began making train noises.

The bell to end class rang, interrupting whatever the teacher was going to say next.

“Okay, we’ll continue tomorrow with your fiction pieces.” She said in a faked cheerfulness. As everyone left to get to their next class, Ms. Lopez ran her fingers through her hair. “Why’d you guys have to break up? This class was so much easier when you two were together.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t want to stay with someone who made me unhappy.”

“Cory, I didn’t mean it like that. I’m sorry. I-”

“It’s fine Ms. Lopez,” She cut the teacher off, “Do you want my paper or should I give it to you tomorrow?” She held her folder in one hand and the paper in the other.

“I can take it tomorrow. I really am sorry. I just meant-”

Cory put the paper in her folder then finished packing up her backpack, “Thanks for saying sorry, but really it’s fine. I’ve gotta go, have a good day.”

“You too, Cory.” Ms. Lopez sounded slightly defeated as Cory left.

She headed out the door and into the hallway only to be greeted by Harley.

“What do you want? I have to get to chem.”

“I’ll walk you.” He took a step toward her.

“No.” She took a step back.

He stopped in his tracks, surprised and sounding a little angry, “What?”

“You heard her. She doesn’t want to talk to you.” Kai walked over and stepped in between the two of them. Harley threw a dirty look at them as they did.

“Babe, come on.” He looked past Kai and at her.

“We’re not dating. Stop calling me that.” Cory said, annoyed.

“That’s not my fault. I wasn’t the one to break up with you.”

“It was your fault though, now if you’ll excuse me.” Cory turned and started in the direction of AP Chemistry with Mr. Hyden. She eyed Kai, worried, but they only stuck their tongue out at Harley and followed her.

“What an asshole. Anyways, I knew you were reading about the constellation theories! You told me you weren’t and now you can’t deny it.”

She smiled at her best friend’s look of accomplishment, “Fine, I was, but only because I couldn’t find anything else that interested me.” _Plus I have to keep tabs on it and make sure no one gets too close for comfort._

“Yes, I can finally talk to you about it. Okay, what do you think about it? Thoughts? Opinions?” Kai mimicked their English teacher.

“I think it’s kinda dumb but still entertaining. I mean, do you really think there are magical beings that protect us and no one’s ever heard of it or made a cult about it or something?”

“Maybe they’re just that powerful that no one knew they were there. God, I’m so happy they get updated every week.”

“Come on, really?” She gave Kai a look.

“I’m not saying I believe it but it is fun to think about, and some things make a little bit of sense. Like how they have meetings and stuff to discuss how the course of the world is gonna go.” _That wasn’t there when I read it before._ “You go to weird meetings at weird times, what if you’re a constellation?” They said in a joking tone.

“My meetings aren’t weird, just a bit irregular, and they’re for community service hours.”

“Alright, Corvus Addington, the literal name of a constellation.”

“Oh my god, so my parents were hippies and liked astrology and that makes me an immortal being.”

They shrugged, “That’s just how it be sometimes.”

They both laughed as Cory walked into the last period of the school day, “See you after school. Have fun with that math test you definitely studied for.”

“It’s gonna be so great, definitely not gonna fail.”

Cory smiled as she sat down at her lab station and pulled out her notes.

“What’re you smiling about?” Nikki said from next to her. She flipped her long black hair over to the other side to get a better look.

“It’s nothing. Let’s just get to work, alright?”

“Okay.” Nikki bit her lip and tucked her hair behind her ear, “You know, I’m really sorry for what I did and I know that doesn’t make it okay but I really hope we can at least be friendly towards one another.”

“Thank you for apologizing. You took notes on the reaction yesterday right? I was a little distracted.”

“Um, yeah. Here,” She slid her notebook over to her. Corvus rewrote the notes into her own notebook and then handed the notebook back to Nikki as the bell to start class rang.

Mr. Hyden was a strict man who ruled his classroom with an iron fist. He would have made a good army general or one of those people who ran the bootcamps for the military. He was the kind of man who you would respect and fear at the same time, although Corvus neither respected him nor feared him.

“Mr. Smith, could you tell me what the answer to the first question of last night’s homework?” He said glaring at Nikki.

“I would, sir, but I wasn’t able to do it. I couldn’t understand it.” She answered with a wavering voice.

“Perhaps if you spent more time paying attention in class than you do pretending to be a girl and playing dress up, you would understand. Would anyone like to help their incompetent classmate?” He glanced around the classroom before landing on Cory.

“Miss Addington, perhaps you can tell the class what you wrote?”

She cleared her throat and lifted her notebook in front of her as if she were trying to see it better “I wrote ‘Mr. Hyden needs to learn to respect people’s pronouns and gender identity regardless of his opinion on the matter and stop harassing students he doesn’t like because of it.’” She spoke loud and confidently while pretending to read from her notebook. Cory glanced over at Nikki to see a little smile floating on her face as Mr. Hyden sighed from the front of the class.

“Miss Addington, that is your third snarky remark this week and it’s Tuesday. I regret to inform you, once again, that I am sending you to the office for blatant disrespect.” He leaned over the desk and wrote out a pass as he said this.

Corvus got up and started to gather her pencils into her pencil pouch and put it in her backpack. When she stood back up, a moment later, Nikki was holding her notebook out for her.

“Thank you.” She mouthed to Cory as she took the notebook.

She nodded to her then walked up to the teacher’s desk.

“I hope you’re pleased with yourself, Miss. Addington.” He let go of his death grip of the slip of paper quickly when he finished speaking.

She looked him in the eyes as she spoke, “Very much so. Have a nice day sir.” Her voice dripped with fake politeness. She turned back to Nikki to make sure she was alright and she could have swore that she winked at her as she left.

Cory placed her pass on her notebook as she walked up to the office where they all, sadly, knew her by name.

“Mr. Hyden sent you up here for ‘disrespect’ again?” Mrs. Pemdon said as she took the slip. She chuckled, “What’d you say this time?”

“I told him he needs to use the right pronouns for Nikki when he asked me for the answer to a homework question.”

The lady at the desk shook her head, “You get into so much trouble defending that girl, it’s almost like you’re asking to get suspended again.” She handed Cory a chocolate from the cup on her desk, “I have to call your dad about it but you can sit at the sofas over there and study instead of going to the ISS room.”

“Thanks, Mrs. Pemdon.” She walked over to the couch and sat, opening up her chemistry notebook to look over the chemical reaction notes she got from Nikki.

When she flipped through her notebook, it stopped at a page with a notecard sitting neatly in the margin of the page of the chemical reaction notes from yesterday. She picked it up and read:

_ Wanna help each other study? _

_ There’s a cute little dinner on 5 _ _ th _ _ and Willow that has wonderful milkshakes. _

_ It’s great for Insta photos if you’re into that. _

_ My treat, meet @ 6? _

It was written in neat, round handwriting, the note too neat and too long to have been written in the amount of time it took Cory to put away her pencils. She smiled and placed it in her chem folder. She spent the rest of the school day reviewing all of her chemistry notes and papers.

At three, the bell signaling that school ended rang and Corvus headed to the parking lot in the front of the school to meet Kai.

They drove up to the sidewalk in their motorcycle, now wearing a heavy leather jacket.

“So I heard you got kicked out of chem again.” They said as they took off their helmet and handed it to her. Their short dark hair stuck out at weird angles.

“Yeah, Mr. Hyden still can’t learn to use the right pronouns for Nikki.” She slipped the helmet on.

“I hope he learns to before you get suspended for getting sent to the office too many times. Ready?” Corvus had hopped onto the back of the motorcycle and now positioned herself in a comfortable and safe way on the edge of the seat. She nodded and Kai started up the bike again.

The Addington’s house was a one and a half story suburban house, the half being Corvus’ bedroom, which was surrounded by the woods as much of the city was.

When they got to Cory’s house, a pregnant lady was sitting on the porch reading a book.

“What’re you reading Jordan?” Cory said as she handled the helmet back to Kai.

“A Tale of Two Cities. Charles Dickens.”

Kai and Cory groaned.

“You’ve read it?”

“Yeah, Sophomore English. Sucked ass.”

“Kai, language in front of the baby. It’s actually really good if you get past the writing style.” Jordan rubbed her belly lovingly, “Before you head off, would you like some lemonade? You’re welcome to come in.” She got up and waddled into the house, beckoning for them to follow.

Kai jumped off their bike and headed into the house, shrugging, “Lemonade is good. Plus, you can’t say no to a pregnant woman.”

Cory followed suit. When she got inside, Jordan had poured three lemonades and handed two to the teenagers.

“So Cory, I got a phone call from your school again. It's Mr. Hyden again, isn’t it?” Jordan said as she spun the ice around her cup.

Cory nodded.

“I knew it. Something about you being disrespectful just because you were defending your friend.”

“I’m not sure I’d call her a friend.” She mumbled quickly before taking a sip of the lemonade.

“Kai, do you have a problem with the teacher?” Jordan turned to Kai.

“Yeah. He insists on calling me Mister and refuses to call me by my pronouns.”

“Someone has to complain about him.” She gave a glance at Cory.

“I think Nikki already did, several times.” Cory said.

“And the school still isn’t disciplining him? We should get your father involved.”

“What’s a homicide detective gonna do? Accuse him of murder and take him into questioning?”

“Yes.” Jordan said in a serious tone with a matching face before smiling, “I’m kidding but he could if you really wanted him to.”

“Cory, I should get going. My parents might get worried if I’m not home soon.”

“School basically just got out though. Why would they be worried?”

“You know,” They shrugged, “my ‘lifestyle’.” They put lifestyle in quotations. “Bye, have a good day Jordan, and her present and future child.”

“Okay, you too. Be safe.”

“Will do, mom.”

Cory stuck her tongue out at them as they left.

She turned to Jordan, “Hey, is it alright if I go study at six?”

“Where? How long? With who?”

“Um, one, a diner on 5th and Willow, two and three, I don’t know. It’s a study group so people kinda just show up.”

“Is it now? Okay, what subject?”

“Chem, is the interrogation over?” She resisted the urge to mess with her hair and settled on making circles on the bottom of the glass.

“Yeah, fine. You need me to drive you?”

“No, I can drive myself. I’ll take the Honda?”

“Yeah, sure.”

“Thanks so much. Love you the most, Jordan.” She backed towards the stairs with her stuff.

“Hey, don’t forget to call your mom. You know she’s not gonna call you.” She yelled after Cory as she strided towards the stairs.

“Okay.” She rushed up the stairs and opened the little door to her bedroom.

Her room was a light blue color with black and white furniture. Her queen sized bed sat in the middle of the room with a small pile of laundry on it. A desk was in front of the big window. Pointed out of the window and up at the sky was a moderately sized telescope from which the almost finished mural of the constellations on her ceiling was referenced. On her desk sat several journals filled with sketches and paintings of anything and everything.

After putting headphones in and changing into her painting clothes, she climbed up the ladder and picked up her paintbrush to start on the last constellation she had to paint, Draco. The serpent constellation took the longest to completely figure out because it can be seen all year round and therefore had to be observed for a whole year to get it right. She’d been working on the mural since freshman year when they moved here and was finally able to convince her dad to let her paint in her room.

The room constantly smells like paint but the window was always open so the fumes didn’t kill her. It probably wasn’t the safest thing in the world but she loved painting it so she didn’t care if it was safe or not.

As she painted, she continuously looked down at the journal that held her notes and sketches of the constellation. It snakes around several other constellations so Cory had to move the ladder a lot.

“Cory!”

She pulled out a headphone, “What do you need, Jordan? I finished all my homework.”

“Ignoring the fact that you just lied to me, I don’t need anything, you need to get ready. It’s five.”

“Seriously? Oh my god, why didn’t you say anything?” She put her paintbrush in the paint bucket and closed the lid in a hurry.

“I just did. And for your information I’ve been calling for you for the last thirty minutes.”

“Oh, shi- sorry.” Cory scrambled down the ladder, “Do I have time to shower?”

“Probably not. Good luck if you try.” Jordan turned and started to head down the stairs, mumbling, “Making me walk up and down stairs, geez. Teenagers.”

She ran her fingers through her hair and went to pick out an outfit that didn’t have paint on it. After tearing through her dresser she settled on ripped, vertically striped, black and white jeans, a plain white tee tucked in, and some Doc Martens. She grabbed her wallet, phone and keys and threw them in her backpack. Then practically sprinted out the door to the great confusion of her father who had just gotten home from work.

“Bye dad, love you. Gotta go.”

“Okay? No hug?”

“Sorry, love you. Bye. I’ll be back before curfew.” She ran out to the car and drove to and down 5th street then turned right on Willow. She scanned the street until she found a diner and turned in. As she entered the diner she put her long, bright red hair into a high ponytail.


	3. It's a Date

It was a diner that looked straight from the 50s complete with a checkered floor, bright colored booths and stools, and a neon sign that read ‘Danny’s Diner’.

_Of course, how didn’t I immediately know?_

When her eyes found Nikki she became incredibly aware of the dark and light blue paint that covered most of her body. She pulled at her hair and brought it to the front, playing with it.

“Cory! You showed up.” Nikki gestured for her to come over, “I thought you wouldn’t come.” She was wearing a black and white striped dress, a belt of the same fabric and pattern was tied in a bow around her waist. She patted the space next to her.

“I had to come. A mysterious note slipped into my notebook? No signature? How could I not?” She slid into the booth next to Nikki.

“Yeah, sorry to be so cryptic. I meant to just slide it over to you during class but you got sent to the office, so, you know.”

“Sorry for messing your plans up. Do you wanna get a milkshake?”

“Sure, chocolate?”

“Always.” Cory flagged down a waiter and ordered a milkshake for them. “So, I’m assuming that you didn’t crypticly ask me here just to study?”

She turned to look at her, “Uh, yeah. I wanted to properly apologize for what I did. I know it doesn’t excuse it and I know it doesn’t make the pain go away but I was drunk and high and not thinking straight, or at all really, and I made a mistake. So if there’s anything I can do to help you then just say so, okay?” After saying this, Nikki’s shoulders relaxed and she looked at Cory with fearful eyes.

“Cutting right to the chase, huh? Alright, thank you for apologizing but you just sped up something that was bound to happen anyways. You clearly have remorse about it which is all I could ask of you.” Nikki let out a breath and smiled as the milkshake was placed on the table.

“Thank you.” Nikki reached over and grabbed the milkshake. She put it in the middle of them and placed the straws in the milkshake.

“Now that that’s out of the way, I could use some studying as I miss too much of that class.” She reached into her bag and pulled out her notebook and textbook.

“Okay.” Nikki took a sip of the milkshake as she took her notebook out.

“What’re you doing for college?” Nikki passed the milkshake to Cory and she told a sip. This went on for the rest of the night.

“I got a full ride to Berkeley for computer programming so I’m going there. Plus they’re more accepting in Cali, so, you know.” Nikki shrugged, “What're you doing?”

“Oh, I’m probably staying in state, go to a community college until I figure out what I want to do.” She looked down at her chemistry notes, “We’re just procrastinating, aren’t we?”

“Yep, wanna keep doing it?” She leaned her elbow on the table and her head in her hand.

“Definitely. So computer programming?”

“For me, it’s more hacking then computer programming but they don’t need to know about that. It’s coding either way so I’m into it.”

“Sounds legal.”

“Oh, completely.”

Cory laughed and Nikki smiled, “You know you look really pretty when you laugh.”

“Oh, uh, thank you.” She grabbed her ponytail and curled the tip of it. “I mean I’ve done my fair share of illegal things so it’s no big deal.”

“Oh? Do tell.”

“You know, downloading music I didn’t pay for and such.”

“Damn, a real bad boy in the flesh.”

“You know it.” Cory bit her lip, “Can I ask you something?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re trans right?”

Nikki leaned back, looking slightly defeated, “Yeah.”

“Okay, cool. How long have you been on estrogen? Cause I totally wouldn’t have known if Mr. Hyden wasn’t a dick.”

Nikki blinked a couple times, “Oh, five years, since eighth grade. Basically fully transitioned except for the parts and my legal gender and name.” She paused, “Are you okay with that?”

Cory’s brows furrowed, “Of course, why wouldn’t I be? Are people not?”

She shrugged, “Yeah, usually when they find out they freak out. Makes dating hard.”

“Dude, I’m sorry. I can’t imagine. People are asses sometimes.” Cory put her hand on Nikki’s.

“Don’t insult asses like that. They deserve better.” Nikki nodded her head a couple times and put her hand on top like a hand sandwich.

Cory looked around with a smile, then it dropped. _Shit._ “Nikki?”

“Yeah, Cory?” Nikki tried to get her attention but it remained fixed outside.

“Can we finish this another time?”

“Yeah? What are you looking at? Cory?”

“I’ll walk you to your car, okay? You did drive here, right?”

“Yes I did, but-”

“Good.” Corvus pulled Nikki up and towards the door.

“Cory! What are you doing?” She threw five dollars on the table and tried to grab her stuff. Instead her stuff just flew all over the floor.

“I- I’m sorry,” Cory grabbed Nikki’s stuff from the floor, “Those people outside, they’re my ex’s friends.” She handed her stuff to her, “They don’t like that I’m not with Harley, therefore they don’t like you and they’re not exactly the most friendly.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Walk you to your car.” She smiled, “I’m gonna make sure you got home alright. If they follow you, drive around for a bit until you lose them. Do not let them see you get out of the car.” Cory squeezed Nikki’s hand with her back towards the window.

She got up and helped Nikki up. She grabbed her backpack from the booth and packed up her things.

While they walked towards the door, Cory got on her tippy toes to reach Nikki’s ear, “Act natural. Don’t show fear, they feed on it, I think.”

Nikki laughed as they walked out the door and towards Nikki’s car. As they walked, the group followed.

“Get home okay. Thanks for helping me study. I’ll see you at school, ok?”

“Okay, be safe.” Nikki got in the car and drove off.

Cory turned to the guy next to her, “Hi, Preston.” She waved her fingers towards him. “Little chilly, huh?” She started to head towards her car when he grabbed her arm, “Really shouldn’t have done that, now it’s self defense.” She spun around and punched the guy.

He grabbed at his nose and doubled over, “Buh, bye now.” She continued walking, then stopped and turned back, “And you can tell Harley, sending his minions to follow me around isn’t gonna make me want to date him.”

“You can tell him yourself.” Harley walked out from the shadows towards her, “Nikki, huh babe? Wouldn’t have guessed. Good choice though, she’s hot.”

“You seemed to think so,” She tilted her head, “Walking out of the shadows, huh? Thought you’d look cool? One of your drunken thoughts?” She walked towards him then grabbed his face, inspecting it. “Oh, you’re really trying to run, huh? I’m not even registering, not really. What is it this time? Me? No, it can’t be. You wouldn’t be here. How’d you even know I was here?”

Harley grabbed the back of her head and pulled her towards him and kissed her. Cory relaxed for a moment then pushed away from him, stumbling back.

“Goddamnit Harley. What the fuck?” She grabbed her ponytail and started to pull on it.

“Babe, come on. You know that felt right.”

“No,” She took a step back, “No, it felt familiar.” _And nice. Stupid fucking emotions. Goddamnit._

“Babe, please. You make me a better person.” He grabbed her hand, “Babe, please. I don’t want to be like this.” With his other hand he gestured to himself as his eyes watered.

“Harley, I can’t.” She pulled her hand away and put her hands behind her back, playing with the rubberband she kept around her wrist.

“What?” His voice shook as he spoke.

“I really fucking can’t. I can’t- I can’t do this anymore. The breaking up and getting back together, I just can’t.”

“I- I want to deserve you. I know that I don’t.”

“If that’s what you need as motivation to be better then fine.”

“Cory, please kiss me again.” He spoke quietly and defeatly.

“Asking for consent is a good step but no, I’m sorry.” She shook her head, “I’m not gonna be another drug for you to get addicted to. I’m trying to move on, okay?”

He took a shaky breath, “Okay. I won’t bother you again.”

“Harley, I’m not asking for that.” She messed with the tips of her hair. “I’m just- I don’t know.”

“I love you Corvus Addington.” He spoke quietly and towards the ground.

She paused a moment, “I love you too Harley.” Cory pulled on her ponytail again, “That’s why I’m saying goodbye.” She turned to Preston, “Take care of him, okay? Make sure he sobers up before he goes home. Sorry ‘bout the nose.” The boy nodded as his blood dripped onto the parking lot and the rest of the group walked over to their friend.

She walked to her car and checked her phone. Half past ten. Thirty minutes past curfew. She dialed her father's number and didn’t even have to wait a second for him to pick up.

“Where the hell are you? Do you know what time it is?”

“Yes. I’m sorry, studying ran late. I’m still at the dinner.”

“Oh, yeah, four hours isn’t enough time to study. Get home now. So help me God, if I find any blood on you, you are never leaving the house again.”

“That’s fair. Love you, dad.”

Mr. Addington sighed, “I love you too, trouble maker. Seriously, get home. Wash the blood off first.”

“What blood?” She tried to sound innocent but Thomas saw right through it.

“Just do it. God, I hope you didn’t break anyone’s nose.”

“Bye, dad. Love you. See you in a bit.” She hung up and ran into the diner to scrub at her right knuckles. Then she sped home.

When she got home, there were tacos waiting on the table and her father was waiting on the couch.

“So, how’d studying go?”

“Good, caught up on everything.” She sat at the table and started to eat.

“That’s good considering finals are in a week and you need to pass the chemistry one.”

“Yeah, Mr. Hyden seems to like sending me out of class, so...”

“He has good reason. You do fight with him a lot. Mrs. Pemdon doesn’t even really tell me anymore, she just calls and says something about ‘only calling because she has to’.”

“Can we stop dancing around the topic you really want to talk about?”

“Okay, sure. Are your knuckles bruised or bleeding?”

“Maybe.”

“Okay, take care of them, there’s ice in the freezer.”

“Thank you.”

“Why’d you punch someone?”

“They grabbed my arm when I tried to walk away.”

“It’s good that you followed _half_ of my advice. I’d like it if you’d follow all of it, Addington.” He spoke sternly in a tone that commanded respect.

“Yeah, me too.” She shrugged, “Might happen, you know, if people stop being idiots.”

Thomas sighed and ran his hand through his graying hair, “I’m heading to bed now. Finish your tacos and go to bed, please.”

“Will do, dad.” She finished up her tacos and headed up to her bathroom to shower. She brushed her hair and put her hair into a braid to dry and continued her mural until the sun came up.


	4. Chapter Three: The Serpent's Letter

“Hey, watch it.” Draco grabbed the popcorn in a hurry as his friends jumped on their couch in their dorm. They sat around a TV waiting for the weekly installment of ‘Whatsits and Dodads’ hosted by Donna Noble.

“Have you heard about the Constellations?” Draco’s roommate threw some popcorn in his mouth.

_ What do you mean?  _ “Kyle, what do you mean Constellations? Like the ones in the sky? Cause I think everyone’s heard of them.”

The blonde punched him in the arm, “Don’t be a smartass, Drae.”

“Oh. Wouldn’t dream of it. Anyways, you were saying?” He tossed some popcorn in his mouth.

“Yeah, sassypants. I was saying that there were these theories online. That constellations were on earth and took human form, right?”

“Yeah. They were uploaded once a week, every Thursday, at 8. Then they just stopped.” Grayson continued.

“The past few weeks it hasn’t been uploaded. And in those weeks there have been three murders, one a week. All the same MO.”

“The victims all have constellations on them, tattoos or something. They’re all from different states too. The FBI has been investigating it.”

Draco grabbed his left arm and rubbed upward to his shoulder, “How can you know that? Aren’t FBI investigations top secret or something?”

Kyle shrugged, “I found it on the internet. Dude, relax. Nothing on the internet is true.”

“Right.” Draco started to float back into his thoughts.

“Hey, hey.” Corbin smacked Draco in the head, “Stop graveling and turn up the TV, it’s on!”

Draco turned up the volume on the TV and for the next hour and a half, it was relatively quiet. The only sounds were boys sitting in a dorm room watching TV and shouting for popcorn periodically. By the end there was popcorn all over the floor from throwing it at the other boys when they asked for popcorn and not a single thought by Draco was about constellations.

“See you next week, Draco.”

“Yeah. Thanks for all your help guys.” Draco was picking up popcorn from the floor while his friends left.

“Yeah. No prob, Drae. I love you, bro.”

“Don’t let your girlfriend hear that, Luke.” He called after him as he closed the door.

Grayson and Kyle helped Draco finish up cleaning. Draco and Kyle picked up the popcorn while Grayson grabbed the vacuum.

“Draco, you have a tattoo of a snake or a dragon or something, right?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Is that why you freaked out when I said the people who were murdered had constellation tattoos.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“You should keep it hidden. Just in case.” He looked over at Draco with a look of heavy concern. “I wouldn’t want anything to happen to my favorite insufferable know it all.”

Draco smiled and laughed. _ Just  _ s _ top looking at me like that. Like you’re scared I’m gonna die or something. _ “As if anything could happen to me.”

“Oh, wise one, enlighten us as to how that is.” The look faded from him just as quick as it showed up.

“Oh, shut up Kyle.” He threw popcorn at him.

“You shut up, asshole.” He threw it back.

“What are you guys doing?” Grayson stood in the doorway of Draco’s room pushing a vacuum. “You’re supposed to be cleaning.”

The two boys looked at each other then threw popcorn at Grayson.

“Hey!”

“Sorry, sorry.” The three boys cleaned up the remaining popcorn and vacuumed. Then they all headed to bed.

_ Did you really think you’d be safe for long? You’ve spent seventeen years here and accomplished nothing. Seventeen years and three months and not an inch closer to finding them or figuring out what you’re going to do. _

_ It’ll happen on it’s own. _

_ Oh, will it? Is that why five of them were sent here? Because it would just happen? Is that why they set up the letters? Because it would be just peachy? _

_ I don’t know anything. Why am I even engaging you? _

_ Because you have to. I’m in your head. You can never get rid of me. Not even with those stupid pills. They make you weak. _

_ You’re quite angry and mean though. I’m going to sleep now. _

_ Have fun with the nightmares, Draco. _

_ Goodnight, fuck face. _

_ Hey now, that’s not very nice. I’m your old friend. Sweet dreams now. _

Draco shot up and looked at the glowing red clock next to him. It blinked 3:18 am at him. He ran his fingers through his curly black hair and took a deep breath. He got up and remembered to put some clothes on, that had led to some undesirable situations before.

In the kitchen he made some tea with one sugar cube and a dollop of milk.

He walked into his room again and took a sip. He sighed and walked over to his desk where his chemistry set sat and sat down, continuing his experiments. He jotted down notes in his many notebooks as he went.

“Draco!” Grayson smacked him in the head, “Goddamnit, you bloody did it again.”

“You didn’t have to hit me.” Draco rubbed his head.

“Your British is showing, Gray.” Kyle stood in the doorway, yawning. “Dude, you did the thing where you zone out for hours.”

“What are you guys doing up? It’s 3 in the morning.”

“It’s 8 and all the sugar cubes are gone.”

“Oh,” Draco reached for his mug, “All my tea is gone.”

“Oh my good lord, Draco. I thought you were over this. It’s been months since your last episode.” Grayson rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes.

“Come on, we’re taking you to Nurse Vickie.” The two boys pulled Draco up and helped him to the clinic on campus.

When they got there, Nurse Vickie took Draco into the back room.

“Draco, your friends tell me you’ve had another episode. Is that true?” She checked his heartbeat.

“Yeah, that’s what they tell me.” She wrote something down.

“Have you been taking your schizophrenia meds.”

He managed to get “No” out through the thermometer in his mouth.

“Why not?” She took it out and wrote down the temperature.

“I don’t have schizophrenia.”

She sighed, “Then how do you explain the voices you hear?”

“It’s one voice and I don’t hear it, it’s in my head. I know it’s not real. That makes it not schiz, doesn’t it?”

“Could it be anything else, Draco? In your infinite knowledge could it be anything else?” She said, exasperated.

“Nope.”  _ Yep, just regular old constellation syndrome. Really shouldn’t have talked to you all those years ago. _

_ Oh, are we on speaking terms again? But yeah, stupid of you to yell at something in your own head. I wasn’t even audible. Parents took you to a shrink and everything. Got prescribed pills and check ups and a nurse at your school. _

_ Just for yelling at you to SHUT UP. _

“Draco? I asked you a question.”

“Yes, well then, could you repeat it?”

“How long have you been off them?” She sounded annoyed.

“A day or two.”

“So a week then.”

“How’d you know?”

“You always tone it down. I’ve caught on, you know. Five years of your nonsense and you learn a thing or two, boy.”

“Alright.”

“Here’s your meds, Draco. Take them this time.” The old woman placed a bottle of pills in his hand.  _ We’re not taking those. _

_ First smart thing you’ve said, and for once, you’re correct. _ “Thank you, will do. Have a good day. Thanks for the help.” He got up and walked backwards out of the building.

“Draco, you’re okay now?”

“Yeah, Grayson. I’m good and high.”

“Don’t joke like that.”

“Kyle, I’m not joking. This shit makes me feel nothing.”  _ And hear nothing, which isn’t a bad thing. _

_ Rude. Not appreciated. You take that back. I am a part of you. _

_ Yeah, I still don’t like you though. _

_ We aren’t speaking. _

_ Fine by me. _

“Why do you take it then?”

“Because sometimes it’s better than my head. Stops the nightmares.”

“That’s why you stopped screaming in your sleep. Grayson, you owe me ten bucks.”

“Goddamnit, Drae. Why’d you have to be so normal?”

“Oh, I wish I was normal.” Draco mumbled before shouting, “Come on boys, lunch hall closes in an hour.”

The boys laughed and raced to the hall to shovel food in their faces for an hour.

When they got back to their dorm it was dark and most dorm room doors were closed, meaning not to disturb them. It made sense as most people were gone for summer break.

“I’m gonna go check the mail.”

“Waiting for a letter from your boyfriend?” Kyle swooned and fell back onto a surprised Grayson.

“Haha, very funny.” Draco called back to Kyle as he walked over to the communal mailboxes.

He opened the third box from the bottom marked ‘Adachi, Copperfield, Sawyer’.

Taking the mail from Copperfield and Sawyer to give to his roommates, he then took out the letter in his slot and walked back to and into his dorm.

“Mail.” Draco slid the couple of pieces under the doors of his friends rooms before heading into his room.

_ It’s addressed to ‘The Serpent’. _

_ Yes, I know. I can read. _

_ Oh, you can? Sorry, didn’t know. _

_ Shut up. _

He flipped it over looking for a stamp or a return address but found neither, only, in curly fancy lettering, To The Serpent.

His brows furrowed as he carefully tore the envelope open. Pulling it out he read as follows:

_ Dearest Serpent, _

_ I am pleased to inform you that you have been invited to a most prestigious event. A meeting of sorts, with the greatest minds in the world, all eighty eight of us. You, Mister Serpent, have been invited. An honor if I do say so myself. Information to follow once it is known for certain you are who you say you are. _

_ Signed, _

_ The Lion _

“Who the fuck?”

_ You’ve been found. You know what this means right? You failed! Ha, you should have listened to me and done something before but no. Draco, the mighty and powerful snake, bested by him once again. Who’s the fuck face now? Huh? Hu- _

He swallowed the pill dry and bit at his shaking nails. He took a deep breath and then another one and another one. He scanned over the letter several more times without reading or seeing it. His vision was blurry, as if he was in a dream.

When the pill kicked in to his satisfaction, he called his mother.

“Hey, yeah I know it’s late. I apologize for that.”

“Huh, oh, no. I’m fine.”

“So classes are over and I was wondering if I could come home for the summer.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“Um, like tomorrow. Yes, I know that isn’t a lot of time.”

“No. I didn’t get kicked out.”

“Mrs. Adachi, I didn’t get kicked out of neither school, nor the dorms.”

“I know I’m allowed to call you mom, it still feels weird. And I just want to come see you guys. I’ve been absent.”

“Oh, he has been asking about me? Really?” Draco smiled sheepishly.

“Yeah, tell him I miss him too.”

“Oh, we’ll be at school so I don’t think I’ll be able to watch him but I can see if I can get my work sent to me at the house if you really need it.”

“Okay, it’s still an option if the sitter can’t make it. Thank you so much. I love you too.”

He spent the rest of his sleepless, anxious night packing to leave. He packed his everyday clothes, leaving his school uniforms in his dorm room. Carefully he packed up his chemistry work and notebooks into a suitcase specifically made to hold his delicate glass beakers, flasks, test tubes, and assorted bottles and jars.

In the morning, he grabbed his bottle of pills and said goodbye to a confused Grayson and Kyle as he left for his second home.


	5. Chapter Four: The Second Letter

The Adachi’s home was a three story house in a Victorian style with a blue roof. It had white paneling and tan trimming. They had a massive garden with so many plants that Draco had no idea how his mother kept all of them alive and knew all the names of.

He walked through the maze of plants leading to the front of the house and bit his lip before walking up the steps to his front door.

Before he could knock the door was thrown open and Mrs. Adachi embraced him.

“Draco, my otokonoko.”

“I’m almost an adult, Mrs. Adachi.”

“You’ll always be my little boy. Now, come in for some tea.”

He slid his shoes off before entering the home and placed them on the shoe rack to the right of the door.

“I have to be off for a meeting in an hour but the tea is on the stove.”

“You’re still in a robe?”

“I can’t get anything on my suit, it’s one of the most important meetings since your father died.”

“Do you still visit his grave?”

Mrs. Adachi stopped in her over the top, busy talk and turned back to Draco with sad eyes and a small smile, “Everyday.” Then she turned back to the stairs and started up them, “Now, Atlas is at school right now but he’ll be home around 3 or 4. Your room should be how you left it, maybe with some gifts from your brother in there.”

“Okay, thanks.” Draco poured himself a cup of tea and tasted it before adding a sugar cube and a little bit of milk. He felt himself calm down as he took a walk through the hallways of his childhood home.

His baby photos of him crying while the rest of his family stood smiling hang from the walls, along with photos of his first chemistry set he got when he was five and him playing in soccer games that he hated but was good at. There were pictures of his first dance recital which he loved and was amazing at. Most of his photos were of his ballet performances, as that was the one time he couldn’t protest to having a picture taken.

He felt the frames of each of these pictures on his way to his old room, reliving each of the snapshots of time.

When he got to the last family photo of everyone, he took it down from the shelf it stood on. Draco stood out from the rest of his family with his dark skin and the black powder on his face and clothes didn’t help anything. Atlas was smiling like a kid on Christmas because Mr. and Mrs. Adachi had allowed him to wear his favorite formal tutu. He must have been about five while Draco was fourteen. The only thing that was physically similar about the two boys was their crazy curly hair, granted they were different colors, black and blond, but it was a similarity nonetheless.

Mr. Adachi was holding Mrs. Adachi’s hand and she looked lovingly up at him. They were both of Japanese descent and second generation immigrants. Being unable to have children themselves, they adopted Draco and Atlas when they were young.

When he reached the library doors, he stopped. He hadn’t been in there for three years, not since Mr. Adachi had died.

As he stood in front of the huge double doors that led into his father’s library he found himself being pulled back to a time he had tried not to think about.

“Draco, I have something to show you.” He could see the kind face of Mr. Adachi as he had held Draco’s little hand and walked up to the library doors.

The two figures pushed open the door and vanished as someone gently placed their hand on his shoulder. He jumped.

“Draco? Is everything okay?” Mrs. Adachi was standing next to him looking very concerned, “You’ve been standing there for a while, staring at the doors. You didn’t answer when I called out. Are you taking your meds?”

“Yeah, I’m- I’m fine. I took my meds last night. I was just thinking about Mr. Adachi.”

“He loved that library. Almost as much as he loved his family. I have someone go in there and dust every week. I still can’t open the doors myself.”

Mrs. Adachi and Draco stood there, in comfortable silence, both lost in thoughts of their lost family member.

After a while, Mrs. Adachi sighed and ruffled Draco’s hair, “I’m afraid it’s time for me to get going. You should put your stuff in your room. It should be the same as it was when you left for school.”

“Okay, thank you.”

She smiled at him as she walked out the hallway, “I’m glad you’re finally home again.”

“Yeah, me too.” He mumbled as he walked back to the kitchen. Draco grabbed his suitcases and headed upstairs.

Before the hallway that leads to the boy’s bedroom, was a brightly colored sitting room that contrasted the rest of the black and white modern furniture of the house. The boys had picked it out a couple years after Atlas was adopted.

The hallway walls towards his and Atlas’ rooms were littered with child’s drawings. There were crude drawings of the night sky and of the constellations, of the chemical equations for dopamine and serotonin and of the favorite ballets of a seven year old Draco Adachi.

He walked by Atlas’s dark blue door and peaked in. It looked the same as it had four years ago plus a couple of bookshelves. Papers and pens were thrown all over the floor, riddled with writing. He had bookshelves upon bookshelves filled with it that he never let anyone read. The wall next to his bed had writing as tall as the little boy could stand. Draco left a purple pen in what he called the offering jar and continued to his room.

His room was at the end of the hallway, directly above the library, and was circular. There were stairs to the right of the doorway that circled around the room. They led to an observation tower with a huge telescope. Draco had spent many sleepless nights watching the sky with all it’s magnificent colors and blends and especially the stars. Oh, the stars were gorgeous.

He walked back down the stairs and remembered the all-nighters pulled to trying to figure out dance routines and chemistry equations. Every ballet costume he had ever worn hung in his closet, never to be touched and only to hold memories.

He lifted up each of the pillows up from his bed until he found the piles of paper.

Draco flipped through the papers, lightly skimming them and put them in a filing cabinet filled with Atlas’ papers to him.

He unpacked his clothes and hung them up on the opposite side of his closet. He put his shoes underneath those and unpacked his chemistry set onto his desk.

“Draco! I’m heading out and you have mail.” Mrs. Adachi yelled from somewhere in the hallway outside his room.

“Okay.” He headed out to grab his mail after organizing his desk.

In fancy, curly lettering on a yellowing envelope were the words, To The Serpent. Again the envelope had no other markings on it.

_ Dearest Serpent, _

_ As promised, here is the information for the meeting: _

_ 4318 SW Fairview Circus, Portland, OR 97221 _

_ It is to be a masquerade ball so, please, wear your most formal attire and remember a mask to match. It would be greatly appreciated if you were to show up at six on the dot on July 30th. You are welcome to display your marking at the event but cover it while outside the venue. _

_ Signed, _

_ The Lion _

He sighed a sigh of relief and walked into his closet to deliberate his outfit for tomorrow.


	6. Chapter Five: The Ball

“I still don’t get why a community service club has a masquerade ball. What’s the purpose of that?” Mr. Addington said to Jordan as they drove Cory to the address of the venue.

“It’s to celebrate the achievements of the past year, Thomas.”

“But why in July?”

“The organization was started in July. It’s all in the email, dear. Don’t you read any of the emails I forward you?”

“Only specific ones,” He said with a smile on his face.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” As if on cue of an awkward conversation, the baby sitting in the back seat started to cry.

“Little Gwen, it’s okay. Daddy didn’t mean to upset you. No he didn’t, did he?” Jordan cooed at the baby from the front seat.

“I would never. I apologize greatly little Gwen.” Thomas turned down the street, “Cory? You’re being awfully quiet. Penny for your thoughts?”

She shrugged, “I’m just thinking. Thank you for the dress again.”

“It’s no problem, please cover up your tattoo though. I don’t want anything to happen.”

“The murders slowed down significantly and besides the closest one was several states away.”

“And a couple weeks ago. He, or she, could have traveled here in that time.”

“Fine, dad. I’ll cover it as much as I can till I get in, okay? Besides, we're here.” She pulled the fabric over the slit of her black satin dress over her right thigh and left the car, “Have fun at the movies guys.”

_ What if the killer is watching us? No, probably not. Maybe. What if they’re here? Looking for their next target. No one would know. None of the head constellations know everyone who walks in. _

She took a deep breath and put on the lace mask that matched her thigh strap. Her clicking pointed stilettos heightened her anxiety as she walked up the steps to the mansion. Entering the arched doorway, the sound echoed and surrounded her.

_They could be a star too. But why would they want to kill fellow constellations? It doesn’t make any sense._

_What if everyone’s in on it? And they’re going to kill me. And this is all a ruse to murder me and mutilate my body and throw me in a ditch like all the others. No, Aries wouldn’t do that. But what if she would? No, that’s dumb, don’t think like that._

“Welcome to my home. This must be your first meeting,” A woman resembling Belle from Beauty and the Beast stood smiling by the door. She wore a long silk golden ball gown with a huge tail and a mask to match. “There’s no need to look so anxious, hon. Most everyone thinks this is just an extravagant party, which it is only with a meeting at the end. So enjoy yourself, maybe you’ll even meet someone.” The woman winked at her as she turned to greet the next guest.

“Thanks.” She walked in and the chatter of what must have been at least a hundred people filled her ears.

“Hey pretty lady.” An arm slid around her waist and grabbed her hip tightly.

Cory slammed her elbow into the man’s diaphragm and drew her hand back, preparing to 

He gasped, groaned and let go, “Koráki, why?”

“Aries?” She threw her arms around him.

“The one and only babe,”

She circled him, “You’re a dude and you’re wearing a traditional suit. There’s no,” Corvus paused and gestured up and down his body, “holes.”

He was wearing a suit that reminded Cory of a man in black situation. He was a ginger, a new look for him but one he had mentioned before.

“Yeah, thought I’d mix it up a bit. It’s still weird after 22 years but I got my bar a lot easier than I usually do.”

“Still calling it The Ram?”

“Of course. I can’t pass up the jokes, you know that Koráki.”

“Any trouble?”

“No, not really. Occasional drunken outburst, there’s this one boy though. He just loves to cause trouble. Raves on about his ex constantly. I can’t tell if he hates her guts or is just madly in love with her.”

“A mini you then.”

Aries shrugged, “Yeah, pretty much. I’m gonna go get a drink, you want your usual? Wait, how old is your body?”

Cory gave him a look, “does my age matter? It’s one drink.”

“You know it’s never just one with us. Bloody Mary then?”

Cory was about to say yes but hesitated, “You know what, I really shouldn’t drink.”

“Wait, who am I talking to right now? Where’s my Koráki? We got so wasted in Greece we could have won in a drinking contest with Dioyious. He was an asshole.”

“I’m just trying to stop drinking in this body.”

“Alright, I can respect that. That’s admirable. It’s good that you’re taking care of your body. I’m gonna go drink enough for both of us though.”

“Okay, you take care of yourself.”

“You too. When you see me again I’m gonna be so wasted.” He finger gunned and winked and walked over to the open bar.

Cory shook her head and wandered towards the mass of people.

_You should’ve taken that drink, you could use it._

She took a deep breath and shot a glance behind her at Aries who already had two shots downed,  _ well, too late for that now. _

She bit her lip and tried to quiet her anxious mind as she started through the group of dancing people.

\-----

When Draco walked into the home he was greeted by the same cheery, confident woman in the beautiful gown and was surprised to see so many people. After all, wasn’t this a constellation conference? Even if everyone was here, there was way more than eighty eight people here. There was music playing that drifted throughout the room, classical and elegant and exactly what he expected from the look of the woman.

The giant fourier was filled with people. Some of which he recognized as his family’s business partners or recurring guests at their parties. He started to walk over to them to talk but hesitated, technically no one was supposed to know he was here. His driver knew and that already too much for his taste. He adjusted his tie and made sure his mask was on properly, then took a deep breath. He would have to avoid everyone he knew, no easy task.

He walked past the open bar, noting a very loud, very drunk ginger who had taken his shirt off, having had several too many drinks. There were tables to the far right across from the bar where people in suits were nursing their drinks and no doubt discussing business plans or whose spouse slept with another’s in their gated mansion community. My Stars, Draco was so glad he wasn’t involved in his family’s affairs, he wasn’t sure he could have handled all the meaningless chit chat.

He headed towards the lit fireplace, thinking it would a quieter place with less people. He pushed through the group gathered dancing in the middle of the room on his way there.

“Hey watch it prick.” A young lady with faded red hair that almost passed for a light pink said when Draco bumped into her and almost pushed her over.

“I’m so sorry miss.” She grabbed his forearm to stabilize herself, “Are you okay?”

She looked up at him with a sort of irritation in her eyes and almost immediately it softened. She had deep blue eyes that looked almost purple, they were absolutely mesmerizing. She was wearing a black lace mask that covered most of her face and what wasn’t covered by the mask was covered by her hair that was falling out of what must have been an incredibly hard updo.

“Hey, pretty boy. Hello?” She waved her hand in front of his face.

His face flushed, “Um, yes?” He looked down embarrassed and realized that was a bad idea as his face reddened more.

“I said, since you almost knocked me over, you owe me a dance.”

“Oh? Why would that be?” He held out his hand and she took it.

“Well, you’ve wounded me greatly and the only way I can think to heal myself is for you to dance with me,” She paused for a moment, “yeah, that was as bad and poorly thought through as I thought. I didn’t think you were going to ask why.”

“I’ll admit it was a bit of a stretch. You know what I think?” Draco put his hands on her waist, careful not to touch skin, which he found more challenging than he initially thought as her dress had a very low back.

“What’s that?” She put her arms stiffly on his shoulders and he could feel her messing with her hands behind his neck.

“I think that was just an excuse to dance with me.” He guided her through the steps of a simple box step.

“Well now, we’ve got our very own Sherlock on the case.” Her nonchalant demeanor was obstructed by the way she fumbled through the steps and watched her feet as if willing them to corporate.

“At your service, milady.” His face which had calmed now flared up again as the woman stumbled and clutched at his back and shoulders, bringing herself closer.

“That was just a ploy to get closer to you. I usually wouldn’t tell my moves like that but we wouldn’t want you thinking I’m clumsy or a bad dancer or anything.”

“Of course, but for the record, I don’t mind either way.”

“Oh.” The girl was uncharacteristically quiet. Was that a hint of redness peeking through?

“Where’s that quick wit I’ve grown to appreciate?” He tucked a stray piece of hair behind her right ear, noticing her piercings. She had an industrial bar with stars dangling from it and a dangly crescent moon earring from her lobe piercing.

“That all you’ve come to appreciate? After hours of getting ready, I’d hope not.” There was a fire in her eyes, not unlike the way her eyes had been when he’d bumped into her, only less hostile.

_ Well, she recovers fast. Unlike someone we know and –well I’m not sure I’d say I love you, would you? _

_ Can it, asshole. _

“There it is.” He smiled and leaned in, which he found a little difficult as they were already close, so he was whispering in her ear, “I would say the other things I appreciate but let’s save that for a later date.”

“Oh? Well, we’ll have to plan something then. I’ve just got to know.”

“I guess we will.” Draco added, “Should we go somewhere we can talk?”

“Yeah, I saw a semi closed off balcony over there.” She pointed towards the opposite end of the room and grabbed his hand to pull him towards it.

They weaved their way across the dance floor, through the crowd of drunk, high, and mildly sober people, trying not to bump anyone or lose each other in the process.

They made it to the balcony and stood out there just staring at the skyline.

“So, what do you think about the killings?” Draco didn’t really know what to say now that they were alone.

The girl leaned against the railing, looking away, “Great conversation starter, pretty boy.”

“Well, that is why we’re here.”

The girl tensed, “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean.”

She looked Draco over, suspicious and trying to figure out if she should or could trust him. She twirled her hair around her pointer finger and looked down her black stilettos.

Draco’s expression softened, “I’m sorry if I startled you. It was stupid to just spring that on you without warning, especially considering.”

“What gave it away?” She cut him off, if she hadn’t he’d have rambled an apology for as long as his mouth could move, as he always did, scaring everyone away. Her eyes met him again, searching, determined.

“The earrings were a nice touch, you don’t fit in with the rich crowd, you called me a prick instead of acting like a response was too good for me, and I can see the peaking of a constellation from under your dress.” She stared at him with an expression he couldn’t quite read, that was a thing she did quite often evidently. “Could you not tell?”

“Let’s say I’m not all here tonight, clever boy.”

“Well now, am I going to need to give the lovely lady a ride home?”

“As fun as that sounds, we’re not supposed to know anything about each other and in case you were wondering, completely sober right now.”

“Then what seems to be on your mind?”

“The killer. I mean, I could be anyone. Probably someone with money, seeing as they travel and as far as I can tell everyone here has money.” Her voice got small, “I didn’t even take the tag of the dress off, it’s just scratching my side.”

“I can promise you, money doesn’t say anything about one’s character. And you’re probably right about the killer having money. I was thinking about that earlier, it’s scary. They know somehow. I was thinking cop?”

“Oh god. Great, another thing to be worried about.”

“Perhaps we should learn self defence.”

“That your excuse to see me in tight, thin clothing?”

“What? No?” His face got pink again.

“I’m kidding pretty boy, don’t get all worked up. Anyways, I could take you. I doubt you’ve ever gotten into a fight.”

“I haven’t. You have I take it?”

“Too many.”

“Well then, maybe you’ll have to be my teacher.” Draco put his arm around her shoulder.

“Maybe I will.” She turned her head towards him, a small almost sad smile sitting on her face. Draco got the feeling that she smiled like that a lot. She sighed and rested her head on his arm. They stayed like that for a moment watching the stars twinkle above them.

‘Sappy’ by Nirvana flooded the small balcony. The two jumped apart and she tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear as her face flushed. She reached into her purse and pulled out an old IPhone.

While she talked she had picked daisies from a potted plant nearby. “Yes?...No, no, you didn’t wake me...Of course. I’d be glad to. He’s a wonderful kid...No, ma’am that’s far too much, I can’t accept that much...I guess that makes sense but...Alright...Thank you ma’am I’ll be there.”

“I’m sorry about that. Babysitting job.”

“That’s alright. You know, we’re probably never going to see each other again.” His brows furrowed, he looked at her, looking beautiful in her dress with the tag still attached. She was standing as if she was waiting for a fight.

“That doesn’t mean we can’t talk right?” She looked at him with a longing look in her eyes and fiddling with her cracked phone case.

“I suppose not, but how would we?”

“Do you have a gossip?”

“Yeah. but that has our name on it.”

“Well, we’ll switch phones and search our username on the app and then edit the nickname on there. Your username doesn’t have your name in it right?”

“No.”

“Good, switch?” She held out her unlocked phone for him.

“Um, okay.” The two exchanged phones.

He thought for a moment before settling on Romeo for the contact name. 

“Alright.” She handled his phone back.

“Apollo?” He asked. 

She shrugged, “I like Ancient Greece. Romeo? Little cliche wouldn’t you say?”

“Yeah, but I played Romeo so I’d say it fits.”

“An actor?” Apollo seemed taken aback by this revelation. 

“I wouldn’t put it that way but I suppose you could say that.”

“Wow, huh.”

“What? You don’t think I could be an actor?” He pouted and pretended to be upset. 

“I took you as a smart kid, I don't know, like an awkward preppy type.”

“I can’t be smart and awkward and an actor? Just by the way, I am not awkward.”

“Just a lil.”

“No way. Not at all.”

“You think you’re smart tho? We got ourselves a narcissist. Typical actor. I, for one, have seen no evidence of your oh so smartness.”

“Well, to toot my own horn, I figured you out didn’t I?”

“I suppose you did. Maybe I should change your nickname to Clever Boy instead of Pretty Boy.”

“Hey, I’m plenty pretty. You got the whole package here.”

“Wow, narcissist alert.” She placed a couple daisies in his curly hair.


	7. Chapter Six:

They smiled and stood for a couple minutes before there was a knock on the window. 

“Koráki and handsome, fantastically built stranger, meetings starting.” The drunk ginger appeared in the doorway. Apollo smacked him and gave him a look. 

“How’d you know I was supposed to stay for the meeting?” Draco asked.

“You carry yourself awkwardly, like you’re not comfortable in your body and all too aware of everything around you.”

“How does that point to constellation? I could just have anxiety. ” He crossed his arms, he was starting to get annoyed with everyone calling him awkward tonight. He was a graceful dancer and carried himself as such.

“It doesn’t, you just confirmed it though.” The man had a very smug look on his face.

“Who are you?” Draco was curious as to how the two knew each other and were seemingly close.

“The man of your dreams.” The man slurred a little and put his hand on the frame to stabilize himself.

Draco stifled a laugh before composing himself, “I’m sorry sir, I’m not gay.”

He shrugged, “Fair enough,” he nudged Apollo, “you better keep this one, he’s cute. None of that  Asclepius shit. ” 

“Alright buddy,” She shoved him towards the conference room which was a few feet away, “You’re drunk, let’s get you over to a seat.” 

They walked into the conference room and Apollo stopped for a moment and gawked over the room. It had high ceilings and a massive chandelier in the middle sending little circles of light everywhere. He couldn’t help but smile at her wonder over the quite standard conference room.

When she caught herself and cleared her throat, Draco found himself wanting that look to come back. For her to look at him like that. She led the man to a seat, Draco was surprised the man was acting relatively sober, he had drunk a lot the last time he saw him.

Draco took a seat next to the girl. She turned to him and mouthed an apology. He mouthed ‘it’s fine’ back and she smiled again; he was getting fond of that smile.

There was another man sitting across the way. He nodded at Draco and he nodded back. He had perfectly styled dirty blond hair and wore a pinstripe suit.

“So as you all know, we have been compromised.” It struck Draco as weird that the woman was still using this very cheery tone while talking about such a dark subject, “So far, five of the constellations have been found murdered and two are currently missing, though that could be them going into hiding, but are presumed dead.”

“Why aren’t we doing anything to stop this?” The girl said casually but with a ferocity that Draco envied, “We should be trying to catch the killer. How are we supposed to continue our missions if we’re constantly having to watch our backs?”

“It is constellation matters, not human therefore we can not interfere.” The woman remained calm but the girl got more upset.

“That’s bullshit and you know it. Police think it’s human business and they’re gonna keep digging. Hell, even the fucking FBI is looking into it. They’re going to find something. We need to clean up.” She was becoming more animated and seemingly more angry.

“I understand where you are coming from but we can’t interfere.”

“So we’re just supposed to let people die?”

“We’re not technically people Koráki.” The ginger piped up.

“Oh, now you’re ganging up on me.” Apollo turned to him with anger in her eyes. He put his hands up in front of him in a show of surrender.

“No, I just- You know the rules.”

“Rules can be changed.” She emphasized each word slowly, trying to control her anger.

“Love, take a breath. No one’s saying you can’t do anything,” Draco put his hand on her shoulder and spoke calmly. 

“That’s exactly what she’s saying.” She was clearly agitated with him and he took his hand off her shoulder. 

“She’s saying the constellations as a whole can’t do anything, that’d completely out everyone. They can’t stop you from researching on your own and trying to help police, hypothetically, not that you would ever, right?”

“Nope.” Her eyes had softened and a small smile floated on her face. Draco felt his face go red again as he slid down in his seat. He looked around to see everyone staring at him with bewildered expressions.

“Keep that one around. He’s cute and smart.” The ginger not-so-whispered to Apollo.

“I am going to ignore the obvious plotting to break the rules in favor of continuing this meeting without hostility. So, as I said before, constellations are going missing so everyone needs to be extra careful, hide your tattoos and, most importantly, stay in control of your emotions. We can’t have anything compromising us anymore than we already are.”

“In other news, there is a funeral of sorts being held soon for those we have lost. More information will be sent out much like for this meeting.” The man in the pinstriped suit spoke for the first time. “Other than that, y’all are free to go.”

Everyone got up and headed for the door, saying their goodbyes to the beautiful golden woman. Apollo stayed behind for a moment. Draco waited outside the door, biting his lip and staring at the wall opposite him, trying to give them a little privacy but wanting to talk to her before leaving.

“Hey, I’m sorry for freaking out on you. I- I don’t know, I think it’s wrong for us to not look after ourselves and each other just because it’s not what we’re supposed to do. Of course, I’m not trying to justify it or say that was the right way to approach the situation but I wanted to explain. I don’t know. Thank you for having me and letting me into your gorgeous home. I appreciate it.”

“It’s quite alright. I’m glad you’re passionate, it’s never a bad thing. Thank you for apologizing but quite honestly, I agree with you. Sadly, everyone would have to agree to doing something about it for anything to happen. I do think it wouldn’t be a terrible idea to help out the police, they don’t know what they’re getting into. I saw you spent all night with that boy; be careful, you’re not supposed to know any of us and you’re already pushing it with Ram.”

“I will be and thank you again, you too.” Apollo walked out of the room and right into Draco’s chest.

“Shit. I didn’t know you were there.”

“Um, yeah, sorry.” They started towards the front of the house.

“No problem. I was kinda hoping I’d see you again.”

“Oh? Why’s that?” Draco smirked, hoping to get a rise out of her.

She pushed him away from her and tucked a spare piece of hair behind her ear before deciding to just take out the bun, “Oh, don’t get smug pretty boy. I wanted to thank you for, like, calming me down. Did you actually want to look into the killer?”

“Yeah. I think it's important and scary and something has to be done.”

“Alright, guess what we’re doing the rest of summer.”

“How is that going to work if we can’t see each other?”

She shushed him and pushed her pointer finger into his lips, “It’s fine pretty boy, we’ll figure that out when we get there.” 

He laughed, “Alright, not a big planner, are you?”

“Not at all.” They sat outside, waiting for their rides.

“How’s babysitting? I thought that was mostly a first job thing before moving on to something else.”

She shrugged, “Idk, I enjoy it. I tell good stories and don’t have that many rules. You’d be surprised how many kids will behave fantasically when not given rules.” She shuttered, and started to rub her arms. 

“Huh, I’ll have to take that into account.” Draco took off his jacket and wrapped it around Apollo.

“You have younger siblings?” She tugged the jacket around her chest.

“Yeah, a little brother.”

“Maybe I’ll babysit for him sometime.”

“Maybe, I don’t know how that’d go. He’s weird and quiet and hard to read and talk to. He’s in a world of his own.”

“I have a kid like that. He’s wonderful and has a beautiful mind, it’s just hard to get in there.”

“That sounds like my brother.”

A small brown honda pulled up and Apollo stood up. “Well, that's my ride.” She rubbed the back of her neck and curled the tip of her hair around her finger, “Here’s your jacket back.” She held the jacket out. 

“No, keep it, it’s fine.”

“You’re sure? This isn’t cheap. Or at least I think it's not, it’s got a name on the tag.” She kept the jacket held out, a confused look on her face. 

“Yeah, if I really need it back I’ll just text you.” He waved his phone. 

“You better text me anyway, Romeo.” She walked backwards towards the car, pointing at him with the hand still holding the jacket. She slid the jacket on and got into the car. 

Draco sat on the bench and looked around for his driver. Instead he saw the dirty blonde man and the golden woman talking to each other in a very hushed, serious way. The dirty blonde man handed something off and then walked over to his car. A moment later, another car pulled out and followed him out. 

Draco ran his hand through his hair, unsure of what to do even if he could do something. It was probably just someone leaving at the same time right?


End file.
